Ryanair are cancelling thousands of flights so staff can use up their holidays

A low-budget airline is planning on cancelling thousands of flights between now and the end of October so that staff can use up their holidays.

Ryanair, which operates routes out of Stansted Airport, announced yesterday (September 15) that between 40 and 50 flights would be cancelled every day for the next six weeks.

In a statement the airline said that they were canning the flights so that pilots and cabin crews can use their allocated annual leave.

The company also hope that it will improve the punctuality as the number of flights arriving on time has fallen to “a figure that is unacceptable to Ryanair and its customers”.

READ MORE: Seven of the most haunted places in Bishop’s Stortford

Robin Kiely, head of communication at Ryanair, said: “We have operated a record schedule (and traffic numbers) during the peak summer months of July and August but must now allocate annual leave to pilots and cabin crew in September and October (while still running the bulk of our summer schedule).

“This increased leave at a time of ATC capacity delays and strikes, has severely reduced our on-time performance over the past two weeks to under 80%.

“By cancelling less than 2% of our flying programme over the next six weeks, (until our winter schedule starts in early November) we can improve the operational resilience of our schedules and restore punctuality to our annualised target of 90%.

“We apologise sincerely to the small number of customers affected by these cancellations, and will be doing our utmost to arrange alternative flights and/or full refunds for them.”